Cloudy eye and skin

[Noelle]

I need help please. I'm a total newbie in this. I have to take car of my boyfriend's aquarium while he's away working up North for 3 months... And I think I will kill it all!

The aquarium is a 110 gallons tank.
It has been running for the last 10 years, but we moved it in september.
We have a hippo tang which we learn afterwards needed a way bigger tank (and he is HUGE), a yellow tang, a powder blue tang, 2 clown fish, a goby and a star fish.
We have live rocks, no corals.
Last additions was the goby and the star fish, more than 2 months ago. The last one before that were 1.5 years ago

Monday, I found the small old fish dead (don't even know what species). It was expected since he was almost 10 years old and had huge tumors on his gills.
Tuesday night, the hippo tang seemed in distress. Really pale, cloudy eyes, slime on his body. He was week and was hiding; he seemed fine the morning.
This morning, he was a little darker and more alert. He ate a little better.
But the goby and the powder blue have a little white on ther fins.
The powder blue seemed to have cloudy eyes too, though not as worse as the hippo tang.
Tonight, the hippo is still alive. A little more alert but still really cloudy. He ate fine. The powder blue eye's seems ok

I went to the pet store today and got a tons of tests and products.
Here are the results :
Specific gravity: 1.022
pH: 8.2
Nitrites : 0
Ammonia : 0
Nitrates : To the roof!!! Over 160 ppm!

Ok, so that's clearly the problem - a bacterial infection due to extremely poor water quality. I guess the dead fish stayed in the water a little too long. I did a 30% water change.
I added Prime and Kent Marine C
I will also have to improve the diet after what I learned on the net this afternoon. (We were only feeding brine shrimps!!!! I learned that tangs are herbivores!) I tried some spirulina flakes tonight which they like, but I'll try to get something better quality (any brand suggestion would be great. I'm in Quebec tough).

Should I remove the carbon and add Melafix tonight or should I wait after I managed to get the nitrates down?
What other products should I get? I read of other vitamins to put on the food?

Help me please. My BF had those fish for years. They are awesome and huge! I can't kill them...

 

[Rea17]

Well first of all, yes, the tank is too small for those tangs, which is causing additional stress to them. Proper nutrition is essential, brine is really void of nutrients that the fish need. Good foods for tangs are nori (ocean nutrition or TLF brands), NLS pellets, hikari seaweed extreme pellets, mysis shrimp, some other misc frozen seafood. Good additives for vitamin and amino acid supplementation are selcon, vita-chem, and/or Kent Zoe.

Now that we've gone over those issues.. It sounds like the fish are sick. Could be bacterial, or the cloudy eyes could be the result of a secondary infection caused by say, ich. Any way you can post a picture? The nitrates are high, but fish don't really suffer from high nitrates the way inverts and corals do, at least not when nitrates are the only factor. Put that together with malnutrition and being in an overstocked undersized tank, and you have a problem.

 

[Noelle]

Everything is still alive this morning and eating. The skin looks different today. A lot less slimy and cottony. More dusty, so I assume it's marine ich. Does it affect the eyes usually?
I took picture this morning, but I think they will look too blurry. It's hard cause they are always moving. I'll put them online after work.
Still haven't put any treatment in the tank. I'll go and try for the food tonight.
I will test the water again tonight. I guess I should do water changes every other day until the nitrates are down?

 

[Rea17]

Ich can effect the eyes, but in severe cases it isn't unusual for it to cause a secondary bacterial infection. "Dusty" is a concerning description, does it look like grains of salt sprinkled over the fish? Assuming they have an advanced case of ich, they need treatment ASAP. Since you have a fowlr you might be able to look into chloroquine phosphate in the display (do a search on this forum), after removing inverts. The other option I'd recommend is cupramine in a dedicated hospital tank. Read the stickies at the top of this forum to learn more about marine ich so you can choose a course of action. Good luck

 

[GHill762]

sounds like a fungal infection.. especially with a cloudy eye..

 

[Mrscribbled]

sounds like a fungal infection.. especially with a cloudy eye..

Highly unlikely, fungus in marine environment is extremely rare, and usually a mislabled bacterial infection.

Most likely a disease is taking place here. Cloudy eyes can be caused by flukes, bacterial infection or water quality. The high nitrates are not life threatning to fish. Photos would help.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Highly unlikely, fungus in marine environment is extremely rare, and usually a mislabled bacterial infection.

Most likely a disease is taking place here. Cloudy eyes can be caused by flukes, bacterial infection or water quality. The high nitrates are not life threatening to fish. Photos would help.

+1.....and avoid the Melafix and similar products. All they do is give you some false confidence and a lighter wallet. For lack of a better idea: I'd treat the tank with Prazi-Pro, a very safe wormer and the only med I'd ever use in a display tank. There are many types of external and internal parasitic worms (flukes included) that the PP will take care of. The nitrate won't hurt most (cma) fish, but levels as high as yours indicate a general lack of housekeeping, mostly water changes, and this can encourage bacterial infections.

 

[Noelle]

Here are my lousy pics... It seems smaller than the regular ich. The condition is changing really fast. For now I hope for the best...

The powder blue tang seems almost cured tonight - can ich cure itself that fast?
The hippo still has lots of lesions as you can see. But his color his darker. He stopped hiding and started swimming again. His appetite is really good, specially for the new foods.

I'm still hoping for secondary bacterial infection to awful water conditions. I think the skimmer wasn't working at the top of his game lately. I cleaned it tuesday and it's producing a lot!

If I decide to do the treatment, how long do I have to take the starfish out before putting it back? I have to setup a complete tank or can I just put it with a live rock change water frequently?

 

[Mrscribbled]

Please read through the stickies above, so you can first understand the lifecycle of marine ich, and velvet. The pictures are a bit blurry, but can tell this is one of the two parasites along with a secondary bacterial infection. A google photo search on marine ich and marine velvet will also help you identify.